Ark Adventure-April 23, 2017

(click here for today's pictures)

We all slept fairly well last night. Robby did look at Graham once and Graham was awake. Robby guessed by light streaming in our hotel window that we only have about 15 minutes left to sleep and told Graham this. After they had both gotten up to go to the bathroom, Robby did glance at the clock to realize that it was just 4 so they had a good long while to sleep before waking up.

After that the first sound we heard this morning was Whitman saying, “good morning.” He cralwed into our bed and soon Campbell and Keaton were with us as well. Whitman did keep sitting up motioning for Anderson to join us but he wasn’t giving up his cozy spot just yet.

It didn’t take too long for everyone to find their clothes (pants today) and brush their teeth. My shower didn’t last long at all because this hotel shower was pretty sad. Then we all headed downstairs for breakfast. The breakfast room was about the size of this van but we managed to find seats and eat.

The main menu choices this morning were waffles, toast, yogurt and bagels. After we all ate, we went upstairs to load the cart and potty before climbing into the car. As soon as we stepped out of the door, we realized that it was a good call to wear pants today. The weather is a rainy, dreary, cold mess.

We usually have better weather luck on our trips but today we weren’t so fortunate. It rained our entire drive to Mammoth Cave. We only stopped once for Robby to run into the restroom. We passed our time this leg of the journey by listening to our book and playing ipads. Robby and I listened to some of the church service as he drove through the rainy mess.

The drive to Mammoth Cave was just so beautiful with the rain making the trees look extra green. We made it to Mammoth Cave around 11:30. The first stop was to pick up our tickets for our self guided tour. We also walked through the gift shop and the visitor center before heading down into the cave.

It was a short down hill walk through the light mist and dripping trees to the entrance of the cave. Mammoth Cave is the longest cave in the world which is pretty impressive but the area on our self guided tour wasn’t as impressive as Carlsbad Caverns. Whitman was pretty aprehensive but when I explained that there would be lights unlike our Cave City cave exploring, he was fine.  Keaton wanted to make sure that it wasn’t going to be as steep as our other cave.  I assured her and she immediately felt better as well.

We walked the loop in the cave and took time to ask a few questions to the rangers. Then we left-upon exiting the cave, you had to walk over a soapy mat so the bat disease that has affected the cave system will not spread. This was Whitman’s favorite part of the journey and when we were back in the visitor’s center, all he wanted to do was find the “wash”-it wasn’t on the map.

After the cave, we loaded up and drove around. The plan was to eat lunch in the car but that is just such a pain to make 8 sandwiches in my lap! Robby did find us a pavillion to eat in so the kids played as I made lunch. It was in the low 50s so our lunch wasn’t too long and then it was back on the road.

We drove on to Louisville and stopped at an ice cream stop, The Comfy Cow. Robby and I had read that their specialty was cookies and cream, our favorite. However, they didn’t have any today. Despite this, it was a neat little stop and a perfect spot to eat a $50 ice cream sundea or just 3 large scoops, which is what we had.

Robby and I had sea salt caramel which was decent. The kids had a peanut butter and also a chocolate chip. After licking the bowls clean, we hopped back in the car and headed to the hotel.

After Robby checked into the hotel and then we walked across the street to La Rosa’s pizza. It is a local chain and despite the restaurant needing a good cleaning, the food was really good. We had lasagna, pizza rolls, spaghetti and pizza. We pretty much cleaned up everything by the end of the meal.

Then we just walked right back across the parking lot to our hotel. Everyone stripped and found their pjs while waiting for the shower. Robby ran the clothes to the wash and we turned on the tv to see if we could find an interesting show.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get the food network or even HGTV so we were stuck watching a Disney kiddie movie. And even worse, I became pretty interested in it. Everyone is currently watching the movie or playing on their ipads. I believe everyone will be headed to bed by 10 tonight.

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